We Are All the Children of God! Amen!

This morning, I awoke to see (Reverend/Pastor) Kenneth Copeland praising the glory of Christ.

He spoke of The Visitation of the Angel of the Lord--when the boss-angel came to the shepherds of Bethlehem--when the angel said, "I bring you glad tidings ('good news') of great joy" ...

'I Give You The Gospel!

"That--this day, in the city of David--is born ..." I would've written 'The Christ,' but I'm not sure you know who 'The Christ' is. (Kenneth Copeland's style is such that--having heard the message from him--one feels that the message is one's own to pass-on—I'm hoping that was one of Kenneth's aims; if not, oh well! [lol])

'The Christ' is the featured son of the Holy Family. Jesus came to show us how we are each "Christ" (only The Christ when we recognize that The Holy Family isn't restricted by blood).

I'll explain with the New International Version of the Scripture Kenneth quoted today (though I think he used the King James Version), from Ephesians 3 (the third chapter of Apostle Paul's letter to the church of Ephesus):

The Law and the Promise
^15b... Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. ¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. ²⁰A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ²²But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

²³Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. ²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

If I remember 'the law' correctly, the content of its rules could be summed-up, "Don't do anything (except your traditional job)!" That's probably an okay rule, except 'breaking it' meant shameful sinfulness.

God wants us to (you'll recall from his instructions to his first son) "Be fruitful and multiply." That sounds like two jobs, 'Go to work to get the money, then come home and ... like bunny-rabbits,' but no; it's only one job (and no, that doesn't mean '"bunny-rabbit"-izing at the office).

Some say "you are what you do." I agree with that, for the most part—so long as it does not limit anybody to being only what you see. I guess I want to remember that 'You Are before you Do anything.' Maybe You are sinful-in-part, but You are redeemed by your subconscious conscience (which catches you imagining a sinful choice and redirects your consciousness to the path of sinlessness).

Many Christian writers would have there said, '--You are redeemed by "the Blood of Jesus" or "the Mercy of God",' and I can naught but agree ("They does what's right by them"); but the next quote shows how that Blood/Mercy flows into our lives:

Sons of God
²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

True Creation is the Baptism. When you were 'baptized' (or maybe 'confirmed' as actually recognizing the Way, Truth and Light), your old spirit (the spirit of Law) died as the true Spirit was created in You!

And--as this sort of confirmation happened several times throughout the Bible (Adam in Eden, Abram becoming Abraham, David in Israel, Joseph in Pharoah's Court, Moses on The Mountain, Jesus in Gethsemane)--it happens several times in the Christian's life (birth, Baptism, grade-school progress, graduation, Confirmation, Marriage).

NOTE: as you might see in the address bar, I've changed the title. At first I just left the title that www.kcm.org automatically placed when I 'spotted' their site, and the message was so important that I didn't even think to change the title!

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